


Josh's Fright Night Festival (that wasn't)

by luna65



Category: Greta Van Fleet (Band)
Genre: Brotp, Gen, Kinda Fluffy, M/M, POV Third Person Omniscient, Sam & Danny: relationship goals, and a smidge of drug use, cute not scary, gratuitous film geekery, they're all bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 22:57:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21187379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luna65/pseuds/luna65
Summary: Josh tries to plan a cool Halloween Night film festival...and as usual his brothers don't take it as seriously as he does.  But he loves them anyway.





	Josh's Fright Night Festival (that wasn't)

**Author's Note:**

> Wow I wrote something short(ish) again! Yay!  
I call this Spoopy Slash, lol. But I suppose you could see it as occurring in my already-existing GVFic continuum but at a point where Sam and Danny have already acted on their attraction and they're not very good at keeping it on the d/l. Just a bit of fluff, I guess, and of course Danny's love of Peeps is canon (per his mom). But no one was more surprised than me to discover there are indeed Halloween Peeps. Thanks as always go to helena_s_renn for never failing to be encouragingly kind.

Not that every evening wasn’t _potentially_ a debate regarding what movie to watch, but Halloween seemed especially contentious, because Josh had to entertain input for whatever program he attempted to curate. Which is not to say his brother-bandmates were philistines, far from it, but perhaps lacking in nuanced understanding of what a Fright Night Festival should be.

"_Rosemary's Baby_? But that's not scary," Danny protested. "I saw it on TV back in Eighth Grade and it's weird, but -"

"It's all _suggestion_," Josh countered. "An incredibly prosaic setting - I mean, yeah, a bunch of senior citizens as Satanists? It's crazy, but, all the things that are suggested but never full-on shown, we find ourselves descending into this mindset along with Rosemary that things are not what they seem. And when you've got something growing inside you that is you and **not** you, it's gonna mess with your head. I'm telling you - the scariest stuff is all implied. Your mind can terrify you way more than any movie scene could, even if they actually show you what's going on."

"See I totally disagree - I got four words for ya: _The Texas Chainsaw Massacre_," Sam piped up.

"Okay but there again - it's _suggestion_. I mean, we never actually know what happens to some of those people. We have to infer from other things - like the room full of bones, and the dinner. But we don't see people actually becoming food or anything. It's all a metaphor for consumerism anyway."

"Dude, that movie is seriously fucked-up," Danny asserted. "Don't make me watch that one again!" He gave Sam a particularly searching look.

"Okay okay!" Sam replied, putting up his hands in a _Don't Shoot!_ gesture. "It's just a movie, though."

"Oh I totally get how movies fuck you up - _that's their job!_" Josh declared.

"We couldn't really do it," Jake mused. "We sure tried, though."

Josh shrugged. "Maybe I don't really want to scare people; even though everybody likes to be scared."

They all recalled the haunted houses and hayrides of their younger years and nodded with nostalgic smiles.

Sam and Danny went into the kitchen to get ready for the Trick-or-Treaters and Danny looked thoughtful as he opened various bags of candy.

"I don't always like to be scared," he murmured. "Like that time you jumped off the porch roof and you were all in black so I had no fucking idea until you were _right there_."

Sam cackled, but Danny's expression made him soften almost immediately.

"Not gonna lie my dude, the look on your face was fuckin' priceless. But I won't do that to you again."

Danny smirked. "Yeah right."

"No seriously." Sam stepped closer and broke a Kit Kat in half, offering a wafer to the guy who was his Everything. Danny took a bite and smiled. "But if something scares _me_ I'm gonna send you out with a sand wedge to deal with it."

"I'd totally do that. Just for you."

Sam fed him the rest of the candy and Danny thanked him with a chocolate-smeared kiss.

“I say we stick with the classics, like _Sleepaway Camp_,” Jake asserted as the twins looked through a couple piles of DVDs.

“I was thinking of a decade retrospective, but I don’t know if I’d do the ‘80s - some of it is so cheesy,” Josh replied, taking a sip of his cocktail. Sam had decided on making candied drinks for some reason and this Butterbeer thing Josh was drinking was okay - at least it was carbonated, which cut down on the treacle-y impression. On the other hand, he’d made one with Big Red soda and Jägermeister which was strictly **evil**. And Sam had proclaimed it was in fact called Evil Red Vines. Jake refused to participate, choosing instead to swig from a newly-opened bottle of Jack Daniels’ Tennessee Fire.

“But it’s Halloween, that’s the perfect time for cheesy!”

“I’d really rather do the ‘70s - _Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark_, _Dawn of the Dead_, _The Wicker Man_ -”

“Oh yeah, we gotta have _The Wicker Man_!”

“Only if you promise not to start howling when Britt takes her clothes off.”

“But she’s gorgeous!”

Josh held up a case. “You guys don’t like this one, do you?”

“_Don’t Look Now_? It’s _weird_.”

“Which is _exactly_ the point, but okay.”

“_The Changeling_!” Jake crowed, holding up another case.

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Josh agreed, adding it to the pile.

“_Phantasm_?”

“Sam already said no, that one is too scary for those two.”

“It’s so good, though!”

“Yeah well, we can watch it later, once they sneak off like they think they’re fooling us.”

Jake snickered. “So obvious they’re boning.”

“That’s their business, but yeah, like we wouldn’t be able to tell, right? How ‘bout a little Giallo?” He held up a copy of _Suspiria_.

“Uh...well, you know I’m more of a Bava man.”

“More tits.”

“Not _just_ that!” Jake declared but then he grinned, spoiling his defense.

Some time later, once the kids had stopped coming because of the rain, they had all agreed to start with a grindhouse gray market disc Josh had acquired, featuring _The Car_ and _Count Yorga, Vampire_ once fortified with popcorn, candy, and the beverage of their choice. Sam and Danny had some distance between them on the love seat - in a competition to see who was the better popcorn tosser - but within 20 minutes they were lounging together at one end, eyes on the screen but hands elsewhere. Josh and Jake shared a smirk. Eventually Jake packed a pipe and it helped to make the somewhat cheesy elements of those films a little easier to appreciate.

“I mean, it’s a **car**,” Danny kept insisting.

“It’s, like, a _possessed_ car,” Sam countered.

“Yeah it obviously borrowed from _Duel_. I think what’s really interesting is how much of it takes place in daylight. The way light and space are used to create menace - that’s pretty damn clever.”

The other three reacted with minor affectionate eyerolls at Josh’s professorial tone.

After the satisfying yet still entirely confusing climax, their attention turned to the adventures of Court Yorga, late of Bulgaria and now enjoying an undead existence in the City of the Angels.

Sam returned from the kitchen with an XXL bag of peanut M&Ms. He waggled it in the twins’ direction, they shook their heads in unison. He didn’t sit down next to his bestie so much as fall _on_ him.

“Ow!” Danny cried, repositioning himself to fit around the other’s lithe frame.

“What?” Sam opened the bag and took a handful.

“You gotta watch them elbows, Boney Maroney.”

“Foreplay,” Jake whispered to Josh, who tried to hide his snort of amusement within a mouthful of popcorn. 

Sam fed Danny a couple of green M&Ms and the two of them snickered.

“If you’re a vampire,” Danny reasoned, “wouldn’t you wanna live somewhere less sunny?”

“Not if you want an entire army of undead babes!” Jake replied.

Danny shrugged. “Yeah okay.”

“This is, like, 90 minutes of Jakey’s life goals,” Sam cracked.

“Ya goddamn right!” Jake declared, raising his (now) quarter-full bottle of cinnamon whisky.

“Hey,” Danny said to Sam, “what happened to my Peeps?”

“I couldn’t find them, maybe you took the bag upstairs?”

Josh wanted to ask _What **are** you guys doing up there anyway?_ but stopped himself. “So which Halloween peep tastes the best?” he asked instead. “Or do they all taste the same?”

“Basically,” Sam replied. “But I like the pumpkins.”

“Nuh-uh, there are subtle differences,” Danny insisted. “The Frankensteins are totally the best.”

“You love anything green,” Sam shot back and Danny let out a cackle.

“Speaking of, who’s bogarting that pipe?”

Josh gestured towards the table. Danny packed the bowl again and passed it to Sam.

“Why thanks old chum,” Sam replied in a parody of an English actor.

“Don’t mention it, old bean,” Danny responded, and his accent was somewhat more believable. Jake had them all beat as his take on a Liverpudlian accent was near flawless.

Danny took a turn then handed it to Josh who placed back in the ashtray without partaking. Josh pondered that _The Vampire Lovers_ was a much better movie, but every time he acquired a copy it ended up disappearing. He suspected that Jake was “borrowing” it and then someone else kept “borrowing” it from him. At least there was a decent-quality upload on YouTube now. A few years back he had an idea for a script portraying them all as a seductive family living in a castle, much like the Karnsteins, but Ronnie had balked at the idea of having to speak with fangs in her mouth. It _was_ tough, he’d tried it before.

In his preliminary draft he cast Danny as the renfield, knowing he wouldn’t want to be a baddie, although he could stand in the back and look menacing. Or _try_ to, anyway. He smiled at the thought of Danny _trying_ to be mean. Right now he had his chin resting on Sam’s head, one arm stretched along the top of the love seat, the other curved around Sam. Every so often Sam would feed him an M&M. Josh thought they were adorable, but knew he and Jake would tease them mercilessly when they finally decided to 'fess up to their coupledom.

Then again, they might not say anything, they might just do something which would leave no doubt in anyone’s mind, and that was fine too.

Jake was heavy-lidded and hadn’t said anything for several minutes, not even when Count Yorga’s brides writhed in their nighties and fell upon a hapless man to feed. _Life goals indeed._

Josh felt his mind drifting too far. He paused the movie.

“What do you guys wanna watch?” he asked the others.

“I thought you liked this one,” Sam said, turning his head to look at Josh.

“It’s always Jake’s choice and he’s toast.”

“He **did** start drinking pretty early,” Danny noted.

“_Young Frankenstein_!” Sam exclaimed.

_Of course, something not scary at all for his bestie._ “An excellent choice, kiddo.”

Sam reflexively frowned at that moniker as he had since he’d been old enough to understand that he was the baby of the family, but then Danny whispered, “Let’s make more popcorn,” and he immediately smiled and nodded.

Once the movie started Josh decided to just enjoy it and turn off the film buff side of his brain. It was difficult, as he found himself paying attention to Madeline Kahn - he considered her a comedic genius and she stole the show in every Mel Brooks movie she appeared in - pondering that her combination of exaggerated seriousness and coquetery worked like a charm, even beating out Teri Garr’s buxom maiden (though no less charming).

“We’ve gotta watch _High Anxiety_ after this!” Sam declared.

“Classic!” Danny agreed.

Josh smiled. There was hope for these kids yet. A snore sounded from the other side of the couch. But certain others, well, they were probably going to have a hangover and a crick in their neck instead.

“We should wake ‘im up,” Sam insisted. “He’ll be mad that he missed Teri rolling in the hay.”

“Roll, roll, roll in ze hay,” Danny sang.

“Nah, whatever he’s dreaming about is probably way better anyway.”

Sam shrugged and settled against Danny again. The two looked utterly content, and Josh knew at this moment they **all** were, and that’s what really mattered.


End file.
